Secret's Out
by Monochrome Insanity
Summary: The new school year at Seika High seems peaceful enough - until Usui and Misaki's secret gets out!
1. Chapter 1

**SUPER UNORIGINAL TITLE!**

**I own nothing; all rights go to whoever they happen to belong to. Hiro Fujiwari, probably. **

**And so the story begins...**

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><p>Misaki stood alone in the empty hallway with her hands placed dramatically on her hips. She looked around the pristine halls and felt a small burst of pride, as though she was the proud parent of the school and had raised it herself. The walls were clear, all posters and signs stripped from it, and the tiled floor stretched out like a street, shining with a cleanness that hadn't been seen in the halls of Seika High School in quite a long time. The lockers lined the walls and were, for once, clean and unmarked as they filed into neat lines like columns. All in all, the school looked a lot better than it had in a long time.<p>

Misaki, along with the rest of the student body, was returning to Seika High School after the short vacation break following graduation. Thanks to the custodial staff, the school's inner workings had become a monument of cleanliness during the weeks they were away, and even though she knew it was going to be short-lived, Misaki reveled in how nice the school looked before the usual school year mayhem disrupted it.

"Hey," came a voice from behind her, and even though she recognized it faster than anyone else's, she still turned around to see who it was. Usui leaned against a wall casually, his school uniform worn loosely and slightly messily, a fact that Misaki couldn't help but frown at.

Still, she was thankful to see that her boyfriend was still attending her school after they had worked to settle the issue with Miyabigaoka. Usui never transferred schools, so of course he was returning to Seika even though both of them realized how much more danger their secret would be in.

"Shouldn't you be in the auditorium? There's an assembly," she replied as she turned away, looking around the hallways that remained empty, just in case someone happened upon them.

"Shouldn't you?" Usui responded with a smirk and continued before she could reply. "Besides, I'm just here for a drink." He made his way to the water fountain which was a few steps closer to Misaki. With the grin still prominently resting on his face and his hands in his pockets, he leaned down and took a sip from the fountain. A long sip. A veeeeeeery long sip. A very loud, long sip.

"Okay, will you cut it out?" Misaki snapped as she crossed her arms. His smile broadened as he straightened his back and faced his girlfriend. Smoothly, he began to move down toward her, turning his head to the side just a little as their proximity increased. "Eh? Eh?" she quietly squealed as a heated blush covered her face when he leaned in even closer as if he was going to kiss her.

"Good luck, today," he whispered almost seductively, his lips inches from hers.

And then he leaned away from her quickly, his mouth twisted into a handsome smile as he sauntered down the hallway in the opposite direction of Misaki. He held up his hand nonchalantly in a backwards wave before turning into the auditorium for the introduction speech for the school year. Behind him, his girlfriend seethed.

"Idiot..." she mumbled non-committedly as she turned around and walked away from the auditorium and instead made her way down a side hallway. It was dark and a light above her flickered. _So the school's still not perfect, _she thought to herself as she reached the end of the hall and entered a door to her right. The clock positioned above the doorway read 8:28 in flashing red numbers. The assembly was scheduled for 8:30, but Misaki continued to walk slowly; she was in no rush.

Once inside the door, she opened another door directly in front of her and peered out in order to inspect the crowd of students. It was an ordinary auditorium, though a bit larger than most high school ones, which was good considering that a large amount of newcomers was entering the school this year. The rows of red, plastic chairs were divided into three groups - the center one facing straight ahead and the side ones tilted to face the large, wooden stage. Students filled up nearly every seat as all of them talked and joked with their friends while teachers positioned at the end of the rows attempted to reel in the crowd. Judging from Misaki's view - and she had a good one of the first year class because they sat in the front - the new students entering Seika this year were almost equally divided as boys and girls. She smiled at the thought and leaned back behind the doorway as she quietly and slowly closed the door just as she heard a microphone-amplified voice echo off the walls: "And now, Ayuzawa Misaki, your school president, will speak."

She opened a door to her left then, and walked through confidently, grabbing a few papers off a table as she went. Pushing the heavy curtains out of the way, she strode onto the stage with an air of determination and patted Yukimura, who sat in a chair on the side of the stage, on the shoulder as she walked up to the podium.

In no way could Misaki be considered a professional speaker. Even though she had spent weeks and weeks preparing her speech for the introduction ceremony and stayed up late working on it the night before, she hadn't once practiced saying it aloud. A normal student might spend time tentatively practicing the words in front of a mirror, but Misaki simply took the speech she had carefully constructed, strode onto the stage, and spoke as if she meant every word of it - which, of course, she did.

"Firstly, I would like to offer a sincere welcome to all the new students attending Seika this year, as well as thank all the familiar faces..."

Her speech wasn't overly long, neither was it too short, and she spoke smoothly and resolutely like a born leader. The words weren't terribly original, and it could have been any everyday student's speech if not for the abnormal amount of male-oriented threats - though, admittedly, compared to the previous years, she had toned it down. Her words inspired the crowd, especially the new students, who were thoroughly transfixed with their new school president. Even the teenagers lounging around in the back with their feet propped up on the seat in front of them sat up a little bit straighter in order to listen.

Among the new students, though Misaki couldn't see them from the stage due to the bright lights shining in her face, were her own sister, Suzuna, and Aoi from the maid cafe. Both of them were entering Saiki as first years this spring, which would probably make school a little more interesting.

Confidently, Misaki prepared for the closing of her speech with a straight back and a ruffle of her papers, which lightly brushed the podium's microphone and sent a echoing burst of noise throughout the auditorium. She cleared her throat a bit and raised her head. "In closing, I would like to say - "

She cut herself off when she noticed the unusual amount of whispers and laughter surging through the crowd of students. At first, she planned to merely pause for a second in order to scold them, until she saw where all of them were pointing as they spoke. Slowly, she turned around, her emotions somewhere between worried that nothing was there and she would feel stupid, and nervous about what could be there.

As she gazed at the back of the stage, she couldn't stop herself from gasping at the sight that faced her. The screen used to show PowerPoints and other presentations at school assemblies had been unrolled and now hung at the back of the stage. Cast upon it from a projector attached to the auditorium's ceiling was the picture of Usui with Misaki in her maid outfit for all the school to see.

A blush painted itself onto the president's cheeks, though at least (thankfully) she wasn't facing the crowd. She took a deep breath before thinking things over as quickly as possible. Rationally, she had two choice: reveal that she was a maid and allow Usui's perverted space alien reputation to go on untarnished, or admit that she was dating him and permit the students to make up a story to explain the maid outfit. Well, three choices. She could always just walk off the stage.

Nervously, she turned around to once again view the students, all of whom were now in a state of shock - excepting, by assumption, Usui, Hinata, Aoi, and Suzuna. By now, a large majority had stopped staring at her and had begun watching Usui, who seemed to somewhere in the middle of the sea of seats. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath, which was all it took to regain the students' attention.

As calmly as possible, though her teeth remained clenched the entire time, she managed to say, "By the way, Usui Takumi and I are dating."

With that said, she moved away from the mic and strode off the stage with her head high and her shoes tapping loudly and angrily. On the way out, she once again patted Yukimura - on the head this time - and casually flipped off a switch on the wall backstage. The projector turned off and, upon switching another button, the screen began to roll back up as its engine whirred. Misaki then slipped out the door backstage and into the dark hallway in an attempt to get away before the crowd left from the auditorium. Her first day was going to be anything but peaceful.

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><p><strong>I would adore reviews, even if all you have to say is grammatical corrections!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for the reviews! That'll teach me to post a story without any plans for the next chapter... Anyhoo! If you have any ideas for a better title as the story progresses, feel free to share them; I really don't like the current one. Too bland.**

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><p>Misaki leaned onto her desk with her hand supporting her face and tugging at her skin. A groan escaped her mouth as she eyed the clock, wondering why this seemed like the longest morning of her life, even though she knew exactly the reason why. After fleeing - with dignity, of course - from the auditorium in the morning, she had made her way to her classroom, prepared for the first day of school. At first she had felt an insatiable desire to simply leave school for the rest of the day, but that was by no means how she handled things. School president skipping school due to a little issue with her personal life? That certainly didn't look good. She needed to remain an upstanding role model for younger students as well as an enforcer of the rules.<p>

Still, she couldn't help but feel miserable as she scanned the room around her, looking at all her classmates who hadn't stopped whispering about her since they entered the room following the assembly. The past three and a half hours of her life had been agonizingly long and the entire time she could feel the other students' eyes on her. Exasperated, she sighed and lay her head down on the desk. Unfortunately, because it was the first day of school, the morning so far had been spent sorting out seating arrangements and giving introductions. Though more school work would be a hassle, at least it would be distracting.

Thankfully for Misaki, the teacher announced lunch just before she was about to tear her hair out. Finally relaxed, she turned around to face Shizuko, the one person in the room who hadn't spent the last few hours of their life gossiping about the school president. It was good to have a friend in class.

"So what do you think's gonna happen?" Shizuko asked politely as she reached for the bento she had packed in her bag. Misaki had her own that she had made in a rush earlier that morning that was scarcely packed.

Misaki thought about the question for a second. "I don't know. I'm going to have to find whoever's responsible for the picture, though."

"Mmmhmm," Shizuko mumbled as a reply while she gazed off, deep in thought. "I think you're handling it very well, considering."

"Considering what? That I could've gone bonkers? I already had an outburst during introductions." Misaki shook her head as she opened up her lunch.

Shizuko smiled kindly. "It was hardly an outburst. They deserved reprimanding."

As Misaki had been standing for her introduction that all the students in the class usually gave, a large amount of whispering had filled the room, more so than the rest of the day. Normally, hers would short, sweet, and only memorable because she was the president - or because she made her feelings toward males quite evident. She had a presence that had a way of stunning people. In her introduction on that particular day, though, a large surge of whispers had filled the room when she stood to speak. So, of course, she "reprimanded" them with a short bout of shouting and scolding.

"Which class is Usui in? I should talk to him about this. After all, he was the only who had the picture," Misaki said thoughtfully.

"I think he's in the same one as Sakura. You don't think he did it, though, right?"

"No, no, I just want to know how someone could've gotten it. Maybe visiting him is a bad idea; it would just encourage rumors and -"

"Ayuzawa?" the teacher, Mr. Kobayashi, called from the front of the room, and Misaki immediately spun around in her seat to address the man.

"Yes?" she replied quizzically. Instead of audibly responding, he casually nodded at the doorway before returning his focus to whatever was in the book he held. During the past few hours, it had become abundantly clear that their teacher was less than enthusiastic about teaching. Well, not necessarily teaching itself, but he seemed completely indifferent to his students. He was smart and had graduated from an excellent college, but he was, frankly, not the kind of man one would desire as a teacher.

In the doorway stood a very, as per usual, pissed off looking Aoi Hyoudou. Casually, he walked into the classroom full of his elders and ignored their questions as to why he was there. "Well? What are you going to do about it?" Came his both vague and angry-sounding greeting. He pulled a chair away from a desk - the guy who was about to sit in it glared at him before Aoi scared him off with daggers from his eyes - and sat down with his arms on Shizuko's desk as he faced Misaki.

"Find the culprit. You're about two minutes late to that conversation. How's your first day?" Misaki said without even looking up until her last question, which she spoke kindly with a soft smile.

"Fine, fine," he mumbled as he averted his eyes and a blush tinged his pale cheeks. Misaki grin widened and, seeing this, Aoi turned his attention back to her. "Anyway, why are you even asking, stupid woman? Don't you have enough to deal with?"

"Yeah, I know, but I was also wondering about Suzuna. She's in your class, isn't she?"

"Hmm? Yeah, she's looks a lot like you," Aoi commented and, after his face reddened just a little more (though it remained unnoticed by Misaki), attempted to return to the actual subject that needed addressing. "Hey, so do you have any idea about who did it? I mean, doesn't this school have some sort of tech room that controls the projector or something?"

"No," said Shizuko, who seemed completely indifferent to the fact that a random underclassmen had just arrived without any sort of introduction, "the projector can be controlled from any computer owned by the school; they all have the software in them, it's just usually protected with a firewall."

"Then shouldn't we check the tech clubs if the person had to have known how to bypass it?" Misaki asked with a casual bite of a rice ball.

"I suppose that would be a good place to start, although I hear that they're really easy to get past. After all, we aren't exactly the highest-budget school," said Shizuko to which Misaki nodded in agreement, though she looked a little confused as to where her friend always seemed to know exactly what was going on at their school, more so than the president herself sometimes.

"Jeez, what's wrong with this place? It can't be a good idea to make all the computers access stuff like that," Aoi complained as he stole a rice ball from Misaki ("I forgot my lunch," was his uncommitted explanation). "And shouldn't you be a little more concerned? After that picture was seen, it's only a matter of time before everyone figures out your other secret."

Misaki, while ignoring Shizuko's questioning glances, replied nonchalantly, "There's no need to worry, I'll fix it."

"It's not like I'm concerned or anything," Aoi snapped as he crossed his arms and turned his head away, concealing slightly flushed cheeks. "It just might affect _me_ badly."

"Oh, that's right. If anyone at school finds out about me, than you, too..."

"Maybe not. Besides, they all already think I'm a freak."

"In only a few hours? How big of an impression do you make?"

"I'm a show-stealer," he said proudly with a flip of his head.

Misaki sighed and put a hand to her head. "At least try to sound a little less boastful about that..." she mumbled with a disbelieving smile. "Anyway, there's no need to worry about your little secret coming out" - by now Shizuko felt entirely confused and decided to just stop trying to decode what they meant - "because _no one_ is going to find out about mine."

"Sure, sure," Aoi said with a slightly tentative glance at the digital clock on the wall. "Eh, I should get back to class," he said, though he paused afterwards as though considering just skipping class. "Bye."

As he turned to leave, Misaki spun around in her chair and called back to him, "By the way, the uniform looks nice on you. It's weird seeing you in something like that."

Aoi whirled around with an incredulous look on his face. "You think so?" he said with a tone that was a mixture of doubt and disdain for Misaki's sense of fashion. He fingered the hem of the green coat with a scowl on his face. "It's not cute at all," he concluded before continuing to walk out the door and close it quite loudly and rudely behind him, causing Mr. Kobayashi to look up from his book.

Misaki sighed and glared at the clock, knowing that each passing second brought her closer and closer to the end of lunch and, therefore, the beginning of three more hours of quiet whispering behind her back with no one to talk to.

She couldn't wait until her nightmare of a first day was over. Even after years of attending Seiko, she felt like a weak first year all over again (well, she had never been weak, not even back then) and a mean girl had spread rumors about her. No matter what, she would find out who projected the picture and how on earth they got their hands on it.

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><p><strong>I'd love reviews! Just FYI, this story might not be updated at a very fast pace, seeing as I'm writing it chapter by chapter and have little to no plan for the future plot. <strong>


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